This suction cup phone case is surprisingly powerful

Phone Case of the Month is a monthly series in which we live with, and subsequently review, our time with a phone case. Phone cases are one of our only ways to express individuality with our smartphones, so what do our phone case choices say about us?

I’ve stuck my phone case to all sorts of things over the past couple months, like my bathroom mirror, random windows in bars, laptops, walls, a windshield, other phones, and glass tables. People immediately want to stick my case to the nearest surface once they notice its suction cups. I don’t blame them! But you probably don’t want to touch the cups at this point because who knows what germs live there.

This suction cup case was always my white whale. My friend Ingrid owned a similar case that was baby blue and made by Marc Jacobs for one season. I always wished I could have one, too, but I was stuck with a Samsung Galaxy S6. (Here’s the long tale of how I ended up with an iPhone.)

I immediately thought about Ingrid’s case when I finally got an iPhone. I had loved it. Then we started Circuit Breaker Live and our producer Creighton tasked me with finding strange cases. I told him about my eternal quest for the suction cup case, and he found me a similar one online. I have no idea whether this is a legitimate Marc Jacobs product. Ingrid tells me it’s not, but I want to believe it is. It cost $40.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The case has 11 small suction cups and one massive cup in the middle. You’re probably underestimating its suction capabilities. I often have to pry it off whatever I stick it to by shoving my finger beneath the large cup. This is a good feature! The case does what it’s supposed to do, but it’s also a little scary because I sometimes accidentally stick it to something and am worried it might break that thing. The case also always leaves suction cup marks.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Okay, so while it does the whole suction thing well, the case is incredibly impractical when I want to put it in my pocket. It’s bulky and doesn’t really fit in my jeans. Those suction cups also get in the way when I’m making a phone call because my hair sometimes wraps around them, which is painful and not fun to deal with. Dust collects on the silicon, too, so in addition to the cups attracting all kinds of germs, I have literal particles of dirt sticking to it at all times.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

This case reminds me of my original phone case review — the blue, furry one — because although they were both novel cases, they also both collected lots of dirt. Honestly, I’m starting to hate this phone case the more I write about it. I kind of can’t wait to take it off? I’m going to go do that, actually. Let this post be a reminder that sometimes your phone case dreams aren’t always what you imagine.